Wedding Bells in the Distance
by ProphecyMarauder45
Summary: One-shot Drabble: Not able to watch the love of his life marry another, Harry Potter left Britain a week before the wedding. An unexpected knock on his door will make him realize that maybe it's not too late after all.


**A/N: This is the compilation of the 100-word mini-saga stories that I posted on the Harmony & Co. Facebook Group every Mondays. Hope you guys like it!**

_Today's the big day. The wedding. _Her _wedding, _he thought painfully.

And he knew he was being a coward when he decided to leave Britain a week before. He would not have been able to bear seeing her get married to someone else. So, instead of being there for her, he hastily accepted the job offer of the Italian Ministry of Magic as Deputy Head Auror, even if they assured him he could take his time in accepting the position.

_She must have been so beautiful in her wedding dress._

A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts.

He went to the door to see who was there.

"Pizza delivery, sir," the man on the other side said when the door opened.

"Oh! Right! Wait just a moment. I'll just grab my wallet," Harry went in and then back at the door to pay for his order.

As soon as he had placed the box on the kitchen table, there was another knock on the door. He assumed it must be the delivery guy, probably forgot something or he gave him the wrong change.

"Did you forget somethi—," he abruptly stopped talking, his eyes widened when he saw who was standing there.

"Hello Harry."

He felt his heart stop for a moment then sped up as if trying to burat out of his chest at the sight of the brunette woman outside his door. What a coincidence that he was just thinking of her just a few minutes ago.

"What are you doing here, Hermione?" he said when he finally found his voice.

"Oh, you know," she waved her hand, "I was just around the neighborhood."

Harry swallowed audibly. He knew her well enough to know there was an underlying anger in her nonchalant response.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" she asked.

Harry opened the door to let Hermione in his flat.

"Where's Cormac?" he asked as she looked around his flat, littered with unopened boxes of his things.

"I imagine he's at home. I don't know," was her answer without looking at him.

"How can you not know where your husband is?" Harry was growing impatient with her. What was she doing here, anyway? She was supposed to be in London.

Hermione turned to him, fires of anger in her eyes, "That's because he's not my husband."

She took a step closer to him, "That's because I never married him."

"What?"

Harry stood rooted there. Didn't marry Cormac? What did that mean? What was she saying?

Hermione continued advancing on him. "I should probably have you and Ron to thank for that. I was going to be Mrs. McLaggen today. I was going to wear my beautiful dress. But when you vanished a week before the wedding, I was devastated. I didn't understand why you would leave just like that, right before one of the most important days of my life."

Harry's back hit the wall and he had no way to escape. So he had no choice but to face her.

"I'm so angry with you. I wanted to hate you."

He closed his eyes as he heard her words. He hated himself for leaving, too, more so now seeing her heartbroken expression.

"I wanted to hate you," she repeated, poking his chest with a finger, "You're my best friend and you _left_ me."

He expected her to hit him, slap him but only silence filled the flat. He was afraid to open his eyes and see that she had left.

Her voice was almost a whisper when she spoke again, "But I couldn't because I realize the truth now."

He was about to say something when she spoke again, "That I'm hopelessly in love with you."

His eyes flew open in shock. He knew he heard her wrong. His heart had wanted her for years that it probably caused him to imagine the words he'd longed to hear.

Cinnamon brown eyes meeting green. "Did you hear me, Harry?"

So it wasn't his imagination. She did say those words.

"But," he croaked, he cleared his throat before speaking again, "But you loved Cormac."

"I did. But I wasn't _in _love with him."

"Then why marry him?" he couldn't help but ask her.

"Because for years, I believed the man I loved would never love me back."

He slid to the floor as his knees gave out.

_She's in love with him like he was with her? Impossible!_

He barely noticed her kneeling in front of him as he sat.

"How…"

She nodded. "Ron spoke to me a few days after you left. You never told him how you felt about me, did you?"

He shook his head.

"And yet he knew. Just like how he knew how I felt about you. So he made me realize what a big mistake I was about to make if I married Cormac. That I should have been with you."

"I'm a coward." Harry said.

Hermione sighed. "We both are."

He shook his head, "I'm also an idiot. I was so afraid of losing you but that was what had almost happened." He took her hands in his and looked up at her. "You're a lot braver than I am, coming here and confronting me. I should have told you long ago how I feel."

"Then tell me now."

Harry took a deep breath. "Hermione Granger, I am completely, utterly, crazily, stupidly, and irrevocably in love you."

She smiled so brilliantly despite the tears in her eyes.

"Kiss me, Harry."


End file.
